Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, says “we are not in a situation where we can say we are exactly where we want to be with regard to testing” capacity for COVID-19 in the U.S.

Fauci, in a discussion for TIME 100 Talks: Finding Hope on Thursday, says that the U.S. needs to not only increase the number of tests, which is happening as commercial testing companies increase production and the Food and Drug Administration continues to clear tests using different types of samples (including ones from the nose and saliva, as well as blood). But, he says, we also needs to make sure tests can actually be run the way they should.

Image: https://time.com

The coronavirus has sufficiently disrupted life that it has our closest attention. And the private sector’s response — initiative, innovation and intrepidity — is inspirational.

Private-sector medical research-and-development innovators, such as biopharmaceutical companies and clinical labs, are working nonstop to discover diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines and cures.

Medical device companies are making medical products of all sorts that are running in short supply and creating new devices for this unique situation.

Healthcare providers — hospitals, clinics, doctors, nurses — are screening and treating people potentially or actually infected with the virus.

If you’re thinking about starting a part-time business in retirement, you’ll want to avoid the following five mistakes:

1. Not having a well-thought out plan to make the business run. “Don’t make the transition on the day you retire. You need to research and make a plan” for your new business, says Philip Phan, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and an EIX editor. (Full disclosure: EIX, the Entrepreneur and Innovation Exchange, is part of the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation which is a funder of Next Avenue.)

Even prior to COVID-19, change was afoot in the venture capital industry. Machine learning and algorithms were emerging as new ways to spot winners, and cities like Boston staked out turf as VC hot spots, proving that not all innovation takes place in Silicon Valley.

Successful entrepreneurs often start with a “random” idea, but they quickly focus their efforts and follow a “system” to organize their startup and maximize the clout of their activities. Too many entrepreneur “wannabes” never get past the idea stage, or strike out randomly in many directions, hoping that their passion will convince people to follow them and make their business grow.

In the coronavirus era, a host of epidemiological terms have entered common public use. There’s the now-ubiquitous “social distancing,” and the newly politicized “flatten the curve.” And as states and local governments seek a way out of lockdowns that have brought their economies to a near-standstill, “contact tracing” has made its way into everyday conversation as well.

Narrator: #1 This bin collects garbage from the sea. Seabin has a pump that creates a flow of water. The garbage is caught in a bag, allowing water to flow out back to sea.

#2 This machine crushes beer bottles into usable sand. 200 grams of powder from each bottle is recycled to preserve beaches. 

#3 SaltWater Brewery created edible packaging to save sea life. The six-pack rings are made of barley and wheat. Sea life can eat the rings safely.

#4 AIR-INK can turn air pollution into ink. It collects carbon soot from a car's exhaust. Then it is processed into a high-quality black ink. 

#5 These edible water blobs are biodegradable. The capsule is made from a seaweed extract. A greener solution to creating waste-free packaging.

Image: https://www.businessinsider.com

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In 1965, the world’s first commercial minicomputer was introduced, the first human walked in space and a prediction was made that would describe an incredible technological and economic force. The semiconductor industry made this prediction a benchmark to plan strategies and set research and development targets for the next 55 years. In spring of that year – April 19, to be exact – Intel’s Gordon E. Moore described an exponential growth trend in computing power where the speed and capability of computers could be expected to double every two years.

The outbreak of Covid-19 has forced organizations into perhaps the most significant social experiment of the future of work in action, with work from home and social distancing policies radically changing the way we work and interact. But the impact on work is far more profound than just changing where people work; it is also fundamentally altering what work is performed and how we perform it.

The iPhone on the table buzzed. Ashley sighed. After three weeks of putting out fires while working through feelings of grief and stress, her first thought was, “Now what’s wrong?”

Except, this text message wasn’t from an anxious client or student. Instead, a casual acquaintance had written: “Ashley, how are you? I’ve been thinking about you and your partner in this Covid-19 environment. I hope you are both okay!” Ashley’s eyes welled up. She needed that check-in more than she realized. And, it was a nice surprise to hear from a colleague she hadn’t caught up with for a while.

Most Americans are still stuck at home, but a trio of reports, out from Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and former US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, are starting to lay a foundation for what reopening the country might look like, if done safely.

Though staying inside is certainly keeping more infections at bay right now, it's not without its costs.

Image: A worker wears a protective face mask in a factory of roll-forming machine maker Gasparini, in Mirano. Reuters - https://www.businessinsider.com

As the Covid-19 pandemic shakes the global economy and disrupts the way we live, work, and conduct business, leaders are scrambling to manage the immediate fallout. But, as history proves, it’s also necessary to prepare for what’s next. Visionary leaders like Abraham Lincoln, FDR, Winston Churchill, and Nelson Mandela didn’t simply react to the most imminent threats confronting them; they also looked beyond the dark horizon. They were guided — and guided their people in turn — by their vision for a better future, after those challenges had been overcome.

The news: A group of experts has produced a plan for the US to reopen its economy safely this summer. However, it’s contingent on doing at least 20 million tests every day, scaling up contact tracing, and ensuring that those who need to isolate can be properly supported.

The report, produced by 45 cross-disciplinary experts assembled by Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, says we need to be doing 5 million tests a day by early June in order to start reopening the country, increasing to 20 million by midsummer to fully end the shutdown. From the start, the World Health Organization has said the only way to beat the virus is to “test, test, test.” That message seems to finally be getting through.

How might a post-pandemic world look and feel? Let’s imagine a creative team at a New York City advertising agency pitching a campaign in 2050 for a new perfume (more than most products, perfumes are sold by attaching to the dreams and aspirations of their times). The Big Apple, thirty years hence, remains a vital hub, but the city is greener and quieter than it is today. The few pedestrians on the streets give each other a wide berth.

As the coronavirus pandemic escalates and disruptions to business-as-usual continue, managers are grappling with the unknown. You don’t know when your employees will be able to return to the office or how different things will be when they do. Regardless, you need to be in constant communication with your team. What information — and how much of it — should you share with your reports about the health of your organization? How can you be candid about the possibility of pay-cuts and layoffs without demoralizing your team? And, during this period of uncertainty, how can you offer assurance without giving people false hope?

RESI is planning its first ever, dedicated, digital partnering event on April 29-30th with over 200 investors participating! We’re offering a special opportunity to our tech hubs to help your companies continue their business development in these difficult times. If you are able to promote this event among your constituents, we would like to offer them the possibility to register at a 50% discount, good until April 17th. That means the registration for 2 full days of partnering will cost less than $300!

Special 50% Discount Offer for Tech Hub Constituents (2-Day registration only, ends April 17th) Registration price $595 = $297.50

REGISTER HERE Discount Code: RESITH50

If you don't know what day it is, you're not alone. There’s a term for what you're feeling: temporal disintegration. 

It’s a phenomenon, explains Dr. Alison Holman, a psychologist and associate professor of nursing at University of California, Irvine, in which people are unable to retain and organize information relating to time, how to do things in a sequential order, or what happened yesterday or the day before.

Image: https://www.usatoday.com - From Video

There’s a phrase to describe what we’re experiencing: collective trauma. We are all grieving—whether it’s for the deaths of loved ones, the loss of our way of life, or the knowledge that things will never quite be the same again. Most of us are experiencing some level of anxiety. The loss of control over major aspects of our lives and lack of a clear end point to the crisis are both partly to blame. For some, stress will spiral into a diagnosable mental health problem. 

Image: https://www.technologyreview.com/

The number of Americans working remotely has been increasing over the past several years.

A 2017 Gallup poll shows that 43% of Americans report working remotely at least sometimes during the workweek, up from 39% in 2012. Nearly one third of workers report spending 80% or more of their time working remotely, up from 24%.

Image: The number of Americans working remotely is increasing. Merla/Shutterstock.com

Amid the dozens of tests for Covid-19 to which the Food and Drug Administration has given emergency use authorizations, the agency said Tuesday that it had given the go-ahead for the first test to include an at-home sample collection option.

The FDA said it reissued the EUA it had given to LabCorp last month for its RT-PCR test to allow for collection of samples at home, using the company’s Pixel by LabCorp Covid-19 Test kit, as long as patients have a doctor’s order. The kits will become available in the coming weeks, the FDA said.

Image: https://medcitynews.com